A high-level inspection of body scanners at the Delhi airport has thrown shocking results with the scanners failing to detect powerful explosives like RDX and PETN and other assault weapons. A joint trial of the scanners was conducted by the Intelligence Bureau, CISF and other agencies and the findings have become a cause of worry for security agencies.

“It has emerged that any type of explosive or prohibited item concealed under cast of POP (plaster) could not be detected. Further, small quantities of PEK/PETN/RDX (plastic explosives) kept concealed along the body’s contours could not be detected,” says a confidential government note, accessed by the Hindustan Times.

The trial, “to assess the versatility of the equipment to detect C4 explosives and prohibited items hidden in the casting” was held on December 22.

Scanners were installed at the Delhi airport on trial basis in May last year.

As per the report, the scanners failed to detect 100 grams of RDX hidden in socks.

It also failed to detect PEK explosive hidden inside a mobile phone kept in the pocket of the trouser.

The scanner failed to detect a 9 mm pistol hidden under a plaster, PEK explosive hidden around the arm under a plaster. The trial team has in fact stated that the “machine cannot penetrate the POP (plaster).”

Liberty News Network national correspondent Andy Ramirez tackles sexual predators at the Department of Homeland Security in the new video report found below. Ramirez confirms many of the suspicions raised by the use of naked-body scanners and enhanced pat-down procedures while he exposes what he dubs “DHS’ dirty little secret.”

Ramirez begins by recounting a highly publicized incident at LAX airport involving actress Donna D’Errico — notorious for her role in Baywatch as well as her Playboy playmate status. While waiting in line at the security checkpoint on her way to Pittsburgh, D’Errico was asked to go through the naked-body scanners. When asked why she had been singled out, the TSA agent responded simply, “Because you caught my eye, and they didn’t.”

Clearly frustrated following the search, D’Errico questioned whether it was mere coincidence that she was selected to go through the naked body scanner at the airport. In her recounting of the story, she explained:

I’m not sure whether they had recognized me or not. If they did, they did not say anything. However, it is my belief that they pulled me aside because they thought I was attractive. After the search, I noticed that the male TSA agent who had pulled me out of line, was smiling and whispering with two other TSA agents and glancing at me. I was outraged.

According to Ramirez, such an inappropriate use of a federal security system is unsurprising, as he has found similar abuses in his past investigations of the United States Border Patrol as well as U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

In 2008, Ramirez compiled a 700-page report entitled, “Unjustifiable and Impeachable: an FOBP Report on DHS, DOJ, and the Courts,” wherein he put together a number of exhibits displaying sexual abuse at federal agencies, what Ramirez refers to as DHS’s “dirty little secret.”

For example, Ramirez’s report addresses “a well-known sex ring operating within U.S. Customs and Border Protection.” Citing a number of specific cases relevant to the sex ring, Ramirez reveals the types of behaviors that take place at the CBP that would otherwise be treated as criminal offenses — cases of sexual harassment and sexual abuse:

Despite the mounting evidence of misconduct at the CBP, however, disciplinary action is rarely if ever employed in any of the cases. In fact, most of those accused of sexual harassment or sexual charges, including Ray Kelley, who now serves as Commissioner of the New York Police Department, are promoted to higher positions.

Without proper disciplinary action, some of the most undeserving federal agents are permitted to retire with full pay and benefits.

Ramirez notes that the naked-body scanners and the enhanced pat-down procedures are just some items in a pattern of negative behavior that is virtually “being condoned at the highest levels, and clearly there is no accountability” in any case.

He asserts that Congress should have foreseen issues of misconduct at the TSA, particularly once the scanners and enhanced pat-downs were implemented, based on what has been taking place at the Customs and Border Patrol and other federal agencies.

After all, Americans were misled to believe that the naked-body scanners did not store photos until Gizmodo released images of 100 people taken from a U.S. Marshal in a Florida Federal courthouse who had stored more than 35,000 images from a full-body scanner. Prior to the release of the images, the TSA insisted that it was impossible to make the images public.

Trust in federal agencies continues to be depleted as such inappropriate behavior continues to be accepted.

Ramirez concludes of the pattern of inappropriate behaviors at agencies such as the TSA and CBP:

Congress should have been doing something about this because here is a problem that happens. When you have a foreign Intel service that is looking at these compromised individuals [such as those officials involved in the sex rings], it’s very easy for foreign governments who have interests that are clearly not in our best interests to gain access and information about individuals running our agencies. So if we have compromises, it’s very easy to see why. Because [the comprised individuals] have set themselves up to be blackmailed and to be used for information.

Until somebody in Congress does something about this, how do we not know that the scanners at airports are not being used for that?

U.S. airport full-body scanners that show a generic figure rather than actual images of passenger body parts may be deployed to some airports for tests this year, the transportation security chief said today.

John Pistole, who leads the Transportation Security Administration, said he reviewed testing of the upgraded machines yesterday and progress is being made. The agency may make decisions on further deployments based on the results of live testing in airports this year, he said in an interview.

L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. and OSI Systems Inc.’s Rapiscan, which make the scanners for U.S. airports, delivered software upgrades to the agency last year that display an avatar and a box alerting authorities to potential threats. The scanners would eliminate the need for the agency to keep an employee in a remote room viewing images of passengers.

Full deployment of the upgraded machines would “completely address the privacy, the modesty issue” that has sparked complaints about the current devices, he said in a speech to a law group today in Washington.

The agency is accelerating use of the scanners after the U.S. said Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight on approach to Detroit Dec. 25, 2009, by igniting explosives in his underpants. The 1,000 scanners due at airports by the end of this year will put them at more than half the security lanes at major U.S. airports.

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Prosecutors alleged the suspect tried to send a virus into the computer system’s servers after learning he would be terminated. The computer system included the government’s no-fly list.

Duchak worked at the TSA’s Colorado Springs Operation Center where the government loads computers with data received from the federal government’s Terrorist Screening Database and the U.S. Marshal’s Service Warrant Information Network, a U.S. Attorney’s office spokesman told 9Wants to Know last year.

Duchak worked at the Colorado Springs Operations Center from August 2004 to Oct. 23, 2009 as a data analyst.

Federal prosecutors say Duchak was not successful in his attempt to introduce a virus into the computer system, but if he had been successful it “would have caused damage affecting a computer used by the United States government in furtherance of national security,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Duchak faced a maximum of 10 years in prison.

This case was investigated by the TSA, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

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A Washington federal judge allowed on Wednesday the Department of Homeland Security to keep from public view the naked body images of air passengers who were screened at airport checkpoints. [ed – uh, I thought these machines weren’t supposed to be able to store the images? Another admission of guilt by our corrupt government]

The decision was an offshoot of a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which sought to obtain copies of 2,000 images to study further the impact of the technology on privacy and civil liberties.

EPIC said that according to technical specifications and vendor contracts the group obtained, the equipment could store, record and transmit images. EPIC Counsel Ginger McCall charged that the Transport Security Authority was not totally honest with the public on the capabilities of the scanners.

TSA officials argued that the whole body images were exempt from the Freedom of Information Act because releasing them would constitute a threat to transportation security and show vulnerabilities of the scanners.

Judge Ricardo Urbina ruled that the Homeland Security Department is not obliged to provide the images under the Freedom of Information Act because disclosure of the images may provide terrorists and other groups with higher ability to prevent detection by TSA and bring into aircraft prohibited materials.

EPIC said it would consider filing an appeal. The group has a pending lawsuit with the federal appeals court in Washington to suspend the body scanner program, which it described as invasive, unlawful and ineffective. The court will hear the case on March 10.

The controversy over airport body scanners has created a crop of entrepreneurs hawking items that promise to keep parts of your body from showing up on the images TSA agents see.

It might be tempting if you’re worried about privacy — but not so fast.

Wear one of the special garments and you’re virtually guaranteed a pat-down, the TSA says in a blog post that takes aim at “the products folks have created that are designed to shield private areas of passengers going through our Advanced Imaging Technology.”

A recent entry into the line of “privacy underwear” was created by Marc Carey, a Kentucky attorney who says his T-shirts, panties and boxer briefs have strategically-placed logos with special ink on them that blurs private parts to TSA agents.

“They’re not protest garments, they’re designed to be a reasonable compromise for travelers to allow the TSA to do their job, but allow people to travel without a great deal of inconvenience and preserve their dignity,” Carey told affiliate WXIX.

Another product that’s received a lot of attention is Flying Pasties, or “reusable vanity inserts” that “can obscure your private areas when you pass through airport scanners,” according to the company’s website.

But passengers should be aware that if they wear such products, they will likely be subject to more scrutiny at the airport, the TSA warns.

“If there is something shielding an area and we don’t know what’s under it, we have to conduct a pat-down,” the agency says on its blog.

“Some might think this is TSA’s way of getting back at clever passengers. That’s not the case at all. It’s just security.”

There are 486 body scanners at 78 U.S. airports, according to the TSA. Many travelers have expressed concern and anger over the graphic images they produce.

Still, a national “Opt Out” protest never materialized over the Thanksgiving holiday, and public opinion polls have shown most Americans support the use of advanced imaging technology. [ed – wrong and wrong, as extensively documented on this site. CNN is a shill for the criminal government]

Meanwhile, a recent survey conducted for the U.S. Travel Association found taking off shoes before going through a metal detector ranked more negatively than both pat-down body searches and full body X-ray scanning.